his Enjoyments So that however the varieties of his Condition may occasion a change in his Pleasures yet can they never cause any Loss or Destruction of them And this security he enjoys not as some of the Stoicks of old pretended to do by an Imaginary Insensibility or by changing the names of Things calling that no Evil which Really is one but by an absolute Resignation of himself to the Will of God and an Hearty acquiescing in his wise Providence He is certain there is a God that governs the World and that nothing happens to him but by his Order and Appointment And he is certain also that this God hath a real Kindness for him and would not dispense any Event unto him but what is really for his Good and Advantage And these thoughts so support his Spirit that he not only bears patiently but thanks God for whatever happens to him And instead of Fretting and Complaining that things succeed otherwise than he expected he resolves with himself that that Condition whatever it be in which he actually is is indeed best for him and that which he himself were he to be the Carver of his Fortunes supposing him but truly to understand his own Concernments would chuse for himself above all others But farther besides this security from Outward Disturbances which our Vertue obtains for us there is another Evil which it also delivers us from with which the wicked Man is almost perpetually haunted and which seldom suffers him to enjoy any sincere unmingled Pleasure That which I mean is the Pangs of an Evil Conscience the Fears the Restlesness the Confusion the Amazements that arise in his Soul from the sense of his Crimes and the just Apprehensions of the Shame and Vengeance that doth await them possibly in this Life but most certainly in the Life to come How Happy how Prosperous soever the Sinner be as to his other Affairs yet these Furies he shall be sure to be plagued with no pompousness of Condition no costly Entertainments no noise of Company will be able to drive them away Every Man that is wicked cannot but know that he is so and that very Knowledge is a Principle of perpetual Anguish and Disquietude Be his Crimes never so secret yet he cannot be confident they will always continue so and the very Apprehension of this makes him feel all the Shame and Amazement of a present Discovery But put the case he hath had the good luck to sin so closely or in such a nature that he need fear nothing from Men yet he knows there is an Offended God to whom he hath a sad and a fearful Reckoning to make a God too Just to be Bribed too Mighty to be Over-awed too Wise to be Imposed upon And is not the Man think you under such Reflections as these likely to live a very Comfortable life Ah none knows the Bitterness of them but himself that feels them To the Judgment of others he perhaps appears a very happy Man he hath the World at his beck all things seem to conspire to make him a great Example of Prosperity we admire we appland his Condition But ah we know not how sad a heart he often carries under this fair Out-side we know not with what sudden Damps his Spirit is often struck even in the heighth of his Revellings We know not how unquiet how broken his sleeps are how oft he starts and looks pale when the Wife that lies by his side understands not what the matter is with him He doth indeed endeavour all he can to stifle his Cares and to stop the mouth of his Conscience He thinks to divert it with Business or to flatter it with little Sophistries or to drown it with Rivers of Wine or to calm it with soft and gentle Airs And he is indeed sometimes so successful in these Arts as for a while to lay it asleep But alas this is no lasting Peace the least thing awakens it even the sound of a Passing-Bell or a clap of Thunder nay a Frightful Dream or a Melancholy Story hath the power to do it and then the poor Man returns to his Torment And now judge you whether the Honest and Vertuous Man that is free from all these Agonies that is at Peace with God and at Peace with his own Conscience that apprehends nothing terrible from the one nor feels any thing troublesome from the other but is safe from Himself and from all the world in his own Innocence Judge I say whether such a one hath not laid to himself better and surer Foundations for Pleasures and a happy Life than the Man that by indulging his Lusts and Vices only breeds up a Snake in his Bosom which will not cease to Sting and Gall him beyond what a Tongue is able to express or a witty Cruelty to invent Fourthly and lastly Besides the benefits of Religion for removing the hinderances of our Pleasures it also adds to Humane Life a world of Pleasures of its own which vicious men are utterly unacquainted with And these are of so excellent a kind so delicious so enravishing that the highest gratifications of sense are not comparable to them Never till we come to be heartily Religious do we understand what true Pleasure is That which ariseth from the grateful motions that are made in our outward senses is but a faint shadow a mere dream of it Then do we begin to enjoy true Pleasures indeed when our Highest and Divinest Faculties which were wholly laid asleep while we lived the Life of Sense begin to be awakened and to exercise themselves upon their proper objects when we become acquainted with God and the Infinite Abyss of Good that is in him when our hearts are made sensible of the great Love and Good-will he bears us and in that Sense are powerfully carried out in Joy and Love and Desire after him When we feel the Divine Nature daily more and more displayed in our Souls shewing forth it self in the blessed Fruits of Charity and Peaceableness and Meekness and Humility and Purity and Devotion and all the other Graces of the Holy Spirit It is not possible but that such a Life as this must needs be a Fountain of inexpressible Joy to him that leads it and fill the Soul with transcendently greater Content than any thing upon Earth can possibly do For this is the Life of God this is the Life of the Blessed Angels above this is the Life that is most of all agreeable to our own Natures While we live thus things are with us as they should be our Souls are in their natural Posture in that state they were framed and designed to live in whereas the Life of Sin is a state of Disorder and Confusion a perpetual violence and force upon our Natures While we live thus we enjoy the Pleasures of Men whereas before when we were governed by Sense we could pretend to no other satisfactions but what the Brutes have as well as we In
more loosly But both Parties especially the more moderate of both seem to drive at much-what the same thing though by different ways as appears from this That being interrogated concerning the Consequences of their several Opinions they generally agree in admitting or rejecting the same But Fourthly Another thing that would make for Peace is this Never to charge upon Men the Consequences of their Opinions when they expresly disown them This is another thing that doth hugely tend to widen our Differences and to exasperate Men's Spirits one against another when having examin'd some Opipinion of a Man or Party of Men and finding very great Absurdities and evil Consequences necessarily to flow from it we presently throw all those into the Dish of them that hold the Opinion as if they could not own the one but they must necessarily own the other Whereas indeed the Men we thus charge may be so innocent in this matter that they do not in the least dream of such Consequences or if they did they would be so far from owning them that they would abhor the Opinion for their sakes To give you an Instance or two in this matter It is a Doctrine maintained by some That God's Will is the Rule of Justice or That every thing is therefore just or good because God wills it Those that are concerned to oppose this Doctrine do contend that if this Doctrine be true it will necessarily follow that no Man can have any Certainty of the Truth of any one Proposition that God hath revealed in Scripture because say they his Eternal Faithfulness and Veracity are by this Doctrine made Arbitrary Things Granting now that this can by just consequence be made out yet I dare say those that hold the aforesaid Doctrine would be very angry and had good reason so to be if they were told that they did not no nor could not upon their Principles certainly believe the Scripture Some Men think that they can with demonstrative Evidence make out that the Doctrine of God's Irrespective Decrees doth in its Consequences overthrow the whole Gospel that it doth destroy the nature of Rewards and Punishments cuts the very Sinews of Men's Endeavours after Vertue makes all Laws Promises Exhortations perfectly idle and insignificant things and renders God the most unlovely Being in the World Now supposing all this to be true yet it would be a most unjust and uncharitable thing to affirm of any that believe that Doctrine many of whom are certainly pious and good Men that they do maintain any such impious and blasphemous Opinions as those that are now mentioned The Sum of all is that a Man may believe a Proposition and not believe all that follows from it Not but that all the Deductions from a Proposition are equally true and equally credible with the Proposition from whence they are deduced But a Man may not so clearly see through the Proposition as to discern that such Consequences are really deducible from it So that we are at no hand to charge them upon him unless he do explicitely own them If this Rule was observ'd our Differences would not make so great a noise nor would the Errours and Heterodoxes maintained among us appear so monstrous and extravagant and we should spare a great many hard words and odious appellations which we now too prodigally bestow upon those that differ from us The Fifth Rule is To abstract Men's Persons from their Opinions and in examining or opposing these never to make any reflections upon those This is a thing so highly reasonable that methinks no Pretender to Ingenuity should ever need to be called upon to observe it For it seems very absurd and ridiculous in any Argument to meddle with that that nothing concerns the Question But what do Personal Reflections concern the Cause of Religion Whatever it may be to the Reputation of an Opinion I am sure it is nothing to the Truth of it that such or such a Man holds it And truly if Men would leave this Impertinence we might hope for a better Issue of our Religious Debates But whilst Men will forsake the Merits of the Cause and unmanly fall to railing and disparaging Men's Persons and scraping together all the ill that can be said of them they blow the Coals of Contention they so imbitter and envenom the Dispute that it rankles into incurable Distastes and Heart-burnings Christians would do well to consider that these mean Arts of exposing Men's Persons to discredit their Opinions are very much unworthy the Dignity of their Profession and most of all mis-becoming the Sacredness and Venerableness of the Truth they contend for And besides no Cause stands in need of them but such an one as is extremely bassled and desperate and even then they are the worst Arguments in the World to support it for quick-sighted Men will easily see through the Dust we endeavour to raise and those that are duller will be apt to suspect from our being so angry and so waspish that we have but a bad Matter to manage We should consider that Men's Persons are sacred things that whatever power we have to judge of their Opinions we have no Authority to judge or censure Them That to bring Them upon the Stage and there throw Dirt on them is highly rude and uncivil and an Affront to Humane Society and the most contrary thing in the World to Christian Charity which is so far from enduring Reproaches and Evil-speaking that it obliges us to cover as much as we can all the Faults and even the very Indiscretions of others The Sixth and last thing I shall recommend to you as an Expedient of Peace is a vigorous Pursuit of Holiness Do but seriously set your selves to be good do but get your Hearts deeply affected with Religion as well as your Heads and then there is no fear but you will be all the Sons of Peace We may talk what we will but really it is our not practising our Religion that makes us so Contentious and Disputatious about it It is our Emptiness of the Divine Life that makes us so full of Speculation and Controversie Was but That once firmly rooted in us these Weeds and Excrescencies of Religion would presently dry up and wither we should loath any longer to feed upon such Husks after we once came to have a Relish of that Bread Ah! How little Satisfaction can all our pretty Notions and fine-spun Controversies yield to a Soul that truly hungers and thirsts after Righteousness How pitifully flatly and insipidly will they taste in comparison of the Divine Entertainments of the Spiritual Life Were we but seriously taken up with the Substantials of our Religion we should not have leisure for the Talking Disputing Divinity we should have greater matters to take up our Thoughts and more profitable Arguments to furnish out our Discourses So long as we could busie our selves in working out our Salvation and furthering the Salvation of others we should think it
but a mean Employment to spend our time in spinning fine Nets for the catching of Flies Besides this Divine Life if it once took place in us would strangely dilate and enlarge our hearts in Charity towards our Brethren it would make us open our arms wide to the whole Creation it would perfectly work out of us all that Peevishness and Sowrness and Penuriousness of Spirit which we do too often contract by being addicted to a Sect and would make us Sweet and Benign and Obliging and ready to receive and embrace all Conditions of Men. In a Word It would quite swallow up all Distinctions of Parties and whatever did but bear upon it the Image of God and the Superscription of the Holy Jesus would need no other Commendatories to our Affection but would upon that alone account be infinitely dear and precious to us Let us all therefore earnestly contend after this Divine Principle of Holiness let us bring down Religion from our Heads to our Hearts from Speculation to Practice Let us make it our business heartily to love God and do his Will and then we may hope to see Peace in our days This this is that that will restore to the World the Golden Age of Primitive Christianity when the Love and Vnity of the Disciples of Jesus was so conspicuous and remarkable that it became into a Proverb See how the Christians love one another This this is that that will bring in the Accomplishment of all those glorious Promises of Peace and Tranquility that Christ hath made to his Church Then shall the Wolf dwell with the Lamb and the Leopard lie down with the Kid Then shall not Ephraim envy Judah nor Judah vex Ephraim but we shall turn our Swords into Plough-shares and our Spears into Pruning-hooks and there will be no more consuming or devouring in all God's Holy Mountain I should now proceed to the Second general Point in my proposed Method of handling this Text viz. To set before you the very great Engagements and Obligations we have upon us to follow after the Things that make for Peace and that 1. From the Nature and Contrivance of our Religion 2. From the great Weight the Scripture lays upon this Duty 3. From the great Vnreasonableness of our Religious Differences 4. From the very evil Consequences that attend them As 1. In that they are great Hindrances of a good Life 2. They are very pernicious to the Civil Peace of the State 3. They are highly opprobrious to Christianity in general And 4. and Lastly Very dangerous to the Protestant Religion as giving too many advantages and too much encouragement to the Factors of the Papacy But I have I fear already exceeded the Limits of a Sermon and therefore shall add no more God open our Eyes that we may in this our day understand the Things that belong to Peace before they be hid from our Eyes SERMON II. PREACHED AT BOW-CHURCH On the 30th of January 1675. 1 Tim. iv 8. Godliness is profitable unto all things having a promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come THese words are the enforcement of an Exhortation which St. Paul had made to Timothy in the Verse beforegoing which was that he should Avoid prophane and Old-wives Fables meaning those impious and superstitious Doctrines and the carnal and unchristian Observances that were grounded upon them some of which he had mentioned in the beginning of this Chapter which some at that time did endeavour to introduce into Christianity and instead of applying his mind to these that he should rather Exercise himself unto true Godliness This was the Exhortation The Arguments wherewith he enforceth it are Two First The Unprofitableness of these Carnal and Superstitious Doctrines and Practices Bodily exercise saith he profiteth little Secondly The real usefulness of solid Vertue and Godliness to all the Purposes of life Godliness is profitable to all things having a promise of this Life as well as of that which is to come I shall not here meddle at all with the former part of the Apostle's Exhortation or the Argument that hath relation to it but shall apply my self wholly to the latter craving leave most plainly and affectionately to press upon you the Exercise of Godliness upon those Grounds and Considerations on which the Apostle here recommendeth it Indeed to a Man that considers well it will appear the most unaccountable thing in the World that among all those several Exercises that Mankind busie themselves about this of Godliness should be in so great a measure neglected that Men should be so diligent so industrious so unwearied some in getting Estates others in purveying for Pleasures others in learning Arts and Trades All in some thing or other relating to this sensible World and so few should study to acquaint themselves with God and the Concernments of their Souls to learn the Arts of Vertue and Religious Conversation Certain it is this Piece of Skill is not more above our reach than many of those other things we so industriously pursue nay I am apt to think it is more within our power than most of them For in our other Labours we cannot always promise to our selves certain success A thousand things may intervene which we know not of that may defeat all our plots and designs though never so carefully laid but no Man ever seriously undertook the Business of Religion but he accomplished it Nay farther As we can with greater certainty so can we with less pains and difficulty promise to our selves success in this affair than we can hope to compass most of our worldly designs which so much take up our thoughts I doubt not in the least but that less labour less trouble less solicitude will serve to make a Man a good Christian than to get an Estate or to attain a competent skill in Humane Arts and Sciences And then for other Motives to oblige us to the study of Religion we have incomparably more and greater than we can have for the pursuit of any other thing It is certainly the greatest Concernment we have in the World It is the very thing God sent us into the World about It is the very thing that his Son came down from Heaven to instruct us in It is the very thing by which we shall be concluded everlastingly happy or everlastingly miserable after this life is ended These things well considered we may justly I say stand amazed that Men should be so prodigiously supine and negligent in an Affair of this nature and importance as we see they generally are If there can any account be given of this matter I suppose it must be some such as this That the things of this World upon which we bestow our Care our Time our Courtship are present to us We see them every day before our Eyes we taste we feel the sweetness of them we are sensible that their enjoyment is absolutely necessary to our present well-being But as
Serviceableness to others The first of these challengeth Men's Esteem the other their Love Now both these Qualities Religion and Vertue do eminently possess us of For First The Religious Man is certainly the most Worthy and Excellent Person for he of all others lives most up to the great End for which he was designed which is the natural measure of the Goodness and Worth of Things Whatever External Advantages a Man may have yet if he be not endow'd with Vertuous Qualities he is far from having any true Worth or Excellence and consequently cannot be a fit Object of our Praise and Esteem because he wants that which should make him Perfect and Good in his Kind For it is not a comely Personage or a long Race of Famous Ancestors or a large Revenue or a multitude of Servants or many swelling Titles or any other thing without a Man that speaks him a Compleat Man or makes him to be what he should be But the right use of his Reason the employing his Liberty and Choice to the best purposes the exercising his Powers and Faculties about the fittest Objects and in the most due Measures these are the Things that make him Excellent Now none can be said to do this but only he that is Vertuous Secondly Religion also is that which makes a Man most Vseful and Profitable to others for it effectually secures his performance of all those Duties whereby both the Security and Welfare of the Publick and also the Good and Advantage of particular Persons is most attained It makes Men Lovers of their Country Loyal to their Prince Obedient to Laws It is the surest Bond and Preservative of Society in the World It obliges us to live peaceably and to submit our selves to our Rulers not only for Wrath but also for Conscience sake It renders us modest and governable in Prosperity and resolute and couragious to suffer bravely in a good Cause in the worst of Times It teacheth us to endeavour as much as in us lies to promote the Good of every particular Member of the Community to be inflexibly upright to do hurt to none but good Offices to all to be charitable to the Bodies and Souls of Men to do all manner of Kindnesses that lie within our power It takes off the Sowrness and Moroseness of our Spirits and makes us Affable and Courteous Gentle and Obliging and willing to embrace with open Arms and an hearty Love all Sorts and Conditions of Men. In every Relation wherein we can stand to one another it influenceth upon us in order to the making us more useful It makes Parents kind and indulgent and careful of the Education of their Children and Children loving and obedient to their Parents It makes Servants diligent to please their Masters and to do their Work in Singleness of Heart not with Eye-service as Men-pleasers but as unto God and it makes Masters gentle and forbearing and careful to make provision for their Family as those that know they have a Master in Heaven that is no Respecter of Persons In a word There is no Condition or Capacity in which Religion will not be signally an Instrument of making us more serviceable to others and of doing more good in the World And if such be the Spirit and Temper of it how is it possible but it must needs acquire a great deal of Respect and Love from all sorts of Men If Obligingness and doing good in one's Generation do not endear a Man to those that know him do not entitle him to their Love and Affections what thing in the World is there that is likely to do it But Secondly True and unaffected Goodness seldom misses of a good Reputation in the World How unjust to Vertue soever Men are in other respects yet in this they generally give it its due where-ever it appears it generally meets with Esteem and Approbation nay it has the good Word of many that otherwise are not over-fond of Religion Though they have not the Grace to be Good themselves yet they rarely have the Confidence not to commend Goodness in others Add to this that no Man ever raised to himself a Good Name in the World but it was upon the score of his Vertues either Real or Pretended Vice hath sometimes got Riches and advanced it self into Preferments but it never was accounted Honourable in any Nation It must be acknowledged indeed that it may and doth sometimes happen that Vicious Men may be had in Esteem but then it is to be considered that it is not for their Vices that they are esteemed but for some good Quality or other they are eminent in And there is no doubt if those Men were without those Vices their Reputation would be so far from being thereby diminished that it would become much more Considerable It must also be acknowledged on the other hand that even Vertuous and Good Men may sometimes fail of that Esteem and Respect that their Vertue seems to merit nay in that degree as to be slighted and despised and to have many Odious Terms and Nick-names put upon them But when we consider the Cases in which this happens it will appear to be of no force at all for the disproving what has been now delivered For First It ought to be considered what kind of Persons those are that treat Vertue and Vertuous Men thus Contemptuously we shall always find them to be the Worst and the Vilest of Mankind such who have debauched the natural Principles of their Minds have lost all the Notions and Distinctions of Good and Evil are fallen below the Dignity of Humane Nature and have nothing to bear up themselves with but Boldness and Confidence Drollery and Scurrility and turning into Ridicule every thing that is grave and serious But it is with these as it is with the Monsters and Extravagances of Nature they are but very Few Few in comparison of the rest of Mankind who have wiser and truer Sentiments of Things But if they were more numerous no Man of Understanding would value what such Men said of him It looks like a Crime to be commended by such Persons and may justly occasion a Man to reflect upon his own Actions and to cry out to himself as He did of old What have I done that these Men speak well of me But Secondly It cannot be denied but that some Persons who are otherwise Vertuous and Religious may be guilty of such Indiscretions as thereby to give others occasion to slight and despise them But then it is to be considered that this is not to be charged upon Vertue and Religion but is the particular Fault of the Persons Every one that is Religious is not Prudent the Meanness of a Man's Vnderstanding or his rash and intemperate Zeal or the Moroseness of his Temper or his too great Scrupulosity about little things may sometimes make his Behaviour Vncouth and Fantastick and betray him to do many Actions which he may think his Religion obliges him
III. PREACHED AT BOW-CHURCH On the 17th of February 1680. Eccles iij. 10. I know that there is no good in them but for a man to rejoice and to do good in his Life THIS Book of Ecclesiastes gives us an Account of the several Experiments that Solomon had made in order to the finding out wherein the Happiness of Man in this World doth consist And these Words are one of the Conclusions he drew from those Experiments No Man had ever greater Opportunities of Trying all the Ways wherein Men generally seek for Contentment than he had and no Man did ever more industriously apply himself to or took a greater Liberty in enjoying those Good Things that are commonly most admired than he did And yet after all his Labour and all his Enjoyments he found nothing but Emptiness and Dissatisfaction He thought to become Happy by Philosophy giving his Heart as he tells us Eccl. 1.13 to seek and search out all the things that come to pass under the Sun Yet upon Trial he found all this to be Vanity and Vexation of Spirit He apply'd his Mind to Political Wisdom and other sorts of Knowledge and his Attainments in that kind were greater than of any that were before him Yet he experienced at last Ver. 18. that in Wisdom was much Grief and he that increaseth Knowledge increaseth Sorrow He proved his Heart as he tells us with Mirth and Wine Chap. 2. Ver. 1 3. and all sorts of Sensual Pleasures to find if these were good for the Sons of Men And yet so far was he from his desir'd Satisfaction in these things that he was forced to say of Laughter Ver. 2. that it was mad and of Mirth What Good doth it He turned himself to Works of Pomp and Magnificence He built him stately Houses and made him Gardens and Vineyards Ver. 4. and Orchards and Fountains He increased his Possessions Ver. 8. and gathered Silver and Gold and the precious Treasures of Kings and of the Provinces He got him a vast Retinue and kept the most splendid Court that ever any Prince of that Country did Yet as he tells us when he came to look upon all the Works that his hands had wrought Ver. 11. and on the Labour that he had laboured to do behold all was Vanity and Vexation of Spirit and there was no Profit under the Sun But wherein then is there any Profit if not in these things What is that Good that the Sons of Men are to apply themselves to in order to their living as comfortably as the state of things here will allow This Question after an Intimation of the Uncertainty and Perplexedness of all Humane Events but withall of the Exactness of the Providence of God who hath made every thing beautiful in its Season he thus resolves in the Words of the Text I know saith he that there is no good in them but for a Man to rejoice and do good in his Life That is to say I have found by long Experience that all the Happiness that is to be had in the Good Things of this Life doth arise from these two Things Rejoicing in the Enjoyment of them and Doing Good to others with them while we live Take away these two Uses and there is no good in them Or if you please we may interpret the first part of his Proposition not of Things but of Men thus I know there is no good in them i. e. I am convinced that there is nothing so good for the Sons of Men or nothing that more contributes to their Happiness in this World than that every Man should rejoice and do good in his Life And to this purpose the Words are render'd by several Interpreters But it is no matter which of the Senses we pitch upon since in effect they come both to one thing Two Things then Solomon here recommends to every one that would live comfortably in this World Rejoicing and Doing Good And I do not know what can be more proper and seasonable to be recommended and insisted on to you at this time and on this occasion than these two things for the putting them in practice makes up the whole Design of this Meeting We are here so many Brethren met together to Rejoice and to do Good To Rejoice together in the Sense and Acknowledgment of God's Mercies and Blessings to us and in the Enjoyment of Society one with another And to do Good not only by increasing our Friendship and mutual Correspondence but by joining together in a chearful Contribution to those our Country-men that need our Charity To entertain you therefore upon these two Points seems to be my proper Business But in treating of them I shall make bold to invert the Order in which they are put in the Text and shall first speak of doing Good though it be last named and shall afterwards treat of Rejoicing The truth is Doing Good in the Order of Nature goes before Rejoicing for it is the Foundation of it There can be no true Joy in the Possession or Use of any Worldly Blessings unless we can satisfie our selves we have done some Good with them It is the doing Good that sanctifies our other Enjoyments and makes them Matter of Rejoicing Now in treating of this Argument I shall briefly endeavour these Three Things First I shall earnestly recommend to you the Practice of doing Good upon several Considerations Secondly I shall represent the Practicableness of it by shewing the several Ways which every Person though in the meanest Circumstances is capable of doing Good Thirdly I shall make two or three Inferences by way of Application I begin with the First Thing Seriously to recommend the Practice of doing Good But where shall I begin to speak either of the Obligations that lie upon us or of the Benefits and Advantages that do accrue to us by doing Good in our Lives Or having begun where shall I make an end The Subject is so copious that the Study of a whole Life cannot exhaust it The more we consider it still the more and the weightier Arguments will present themselves to us to engage us in the practice of it and the more we practise it still the more shall we desire so to do and the more happy and blessed shall we find our selves to be For to do Good is nothing else but to act according to the Frame and Make of our Beings It is to gratifie those Inclinations and Appetites that are most strongly rooted in our Natures such as Love and Natural Affection Pity and Compassion a Desire of Friends and a Propensity to knot our selves into Companies and Societies What are all these but so many Stimuli so many powerful Incitements of Nature to put us upon doing good Offices one to another To do Good is the End of all those Acquisitions of all those Talents of all those Favours and Advantages that God has bless'd us with it is the proper Use we
which is more accommodated to Cities and publick Societies than to Cloysters and Deserts And lastly Mat. 5.16 this is to walk in a conformity to his command who hath bid us make our light so to shine before men that they may see our good works and glorifie our Father which is in Heaven But Fourthly and lastly If it be a thing so necessary that every man should do Good in his life as hath been represented then how much to be reproved are they that do no Good till their death That live scrapingly and uncharitably and uselesly to the world all their lives long and then when they come to die think to Atone for their sins and neglects of this kind by shewing some extraordinary Bounty to the poor or devoting some part of their Estates to publick or pious uses I must confess this kind of proceeding doth to me seem just like the business of putting off a man's repentance to his death-bed It is absolutely necessary that a Man should repent though it be never so late and so it is that he should do good if he have done little Good in his life he is bound as he loves his soul to shew some extraordinary uncommon instances of Charity and a Publick Spirit when he comes to die But then it is here as it is with the long delaying of Repentance the deferring it so long has robbed the man of the greatest part of the praise and the comfort he might have expected from it His Rewards in Heaven will be much less though his good deeds should be accepted but he is infinitely uncertain whether they will or no. It must be a very great act of Generosity and Charity that can obtain a pardon for a whole life of uncharitableness Let us all therefore labour and study to do Good in our lives let us be daily giving evidences to the World of our kind and charitable disposition and let not that be the first which is discovered in our last Will and Testament If God hath blessed us with worldly goods let us distribute them as we see occasion in our life time when every one may see we do it voluntarily and not stay till we must be forced to part with them whether we will or no for that will blast the credit of our good deeds both with God and man I have said enough concerning the first point recommended in the Text viz. doing Good I now come briefly to Treat of the other that is Rejoycing which is equally a part of the business of this day There is no Good saith Solomon in any earthly thing or there is nothing better for any Man than to rejoyce and to do Good The Rejoycing her recommended is capable of two senses the first more general and more concerning us as Christians the other more particular and which more immediately concerns us as we are here met upon this occasion In the first place by Rejoycing we may take to be meant a constant habit of joy and chearfulness so that we are always contented and well pleased always free from those anxieties and disquiets and uncomfortable reflexions that make the lives of mankind miserable This now is the Perfection of Rejoycing and it is the utmost degree of Happiness that we are here capable of It must be granted indeed that not many do arrive to this state but yet I doubt not but that it is a state that may be attained at least in a great measure in this world Otherwise the Holy Men in Scripture and particularly the Apostles of our Lord would never have recommended it to us so often as they have done Rejoyce evermore 1 Thess 9 16. Phil. 4.4 saith S. Paul to the Thessalonians And to the Philipians Rejoyce in the Lord always and again I say rejoyce The way to attain to this happy condition doth consist chiefly in these three things First a great innocence and vertue a behaving our selves so in the world that our Consciences shall not reproach us This St. Paul lays as the Foundation of Rejoycing This saith he is our rejoycing 2 Cor. 1.12 the Testimony of our Conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity I have had my conversation in this world It is in vain to think of any true solid Joy or Peace or Contentment without a hearty Practice of all the duties of our Religion so that we can satisfie our selves of our own sincerity before God And then secondly To make us capable of this constant Rejoycing besides the innocence of our lives there must go a firm and hearty persuasion of God's particular Providence a belief that he not only dispenseth all events that come to pass in the World even the most inconsiderable but that the measure of the Dispensations of his Providence is infinite Wisdom and Goodness and nothing else so that nothing doth or ever can happen to us in particular or to the world in general but what is for the best Now when we firmly believe this and frequently attend to it how can we be either solicitous for the future or discontented at the present events of things let them fall out never so cross to our desires and expectations This is the best Antidote in the world and an effectual one it is against all trouble and vexation and uneasiness that can happen to us upon any occasion whatsoever to wit the consideration that all things are managed by an infinitely wise and good God and will at last prove for the best how unaccountable soever they appear to us at present And this is that which the wise man insinuates in the verse before the Text when he saith that God hath made every thing beautiful in his season Thirdly Another requisite both for the procuring and preserving this continual chearfulness and rejoycing is a frequent and fixed attention to the great rewards of the other world which God hath promised to all that truly love him and endeavour to please him This consideration will extreamly add to our comfort and contribute to our Rejoycing under all the miseries and afflictions that we can possibly fall into namely that whatsoever condition we are in here we shall certainly in a little time be in a most happy and glorious one and the worse our circumstances are in this life the greater if we be good shall be our happiness in the next 2. Cor. 4.17 for these light afflictions as S. Pual tells us which indure but for a moment do work for us a far more exceeding weight of glory This then is the joy that we are to endeavour after in the first place to be constantly well pleas'd and contented with our present condition whatever it be and these are the ways to attain to it But Secondly There is another more particular Notion of Rejoycing and which I conceive Solomon doth chiefly intend in the words of the Text and that is the free and comfortable enjoyment of the good things of this life that God hath
Religious posture of mind but upon the plain natural frame and temper of your Souls as they constantly stand inclined to Virtue and Goodness A Man that seriously endeavours to live honestly and religiously may come to the Sacrament at an hour's warning and be a Worthy Receiver On the other side a Man that lives a careless or a sensual Life may set apart a whole Week or a whole Month for the exercising Repentance and preparing himself for the Communion and yet not be so worthy a Receiver as the other And yet he may be a worthy Receiver too provided he be really honest and sincere in the matter he goes about and provided that he remember his Vows afterward and do not sink again into his former state of carelesness and sensuality But to return to my point I do verily think that most of the doubts and fears and scruples that are commonly entertained among us about receiving the Sacrament are without ground or reason and that every well disposed Person that hath no other design in that action but to do his Duty to God and to express his belief and hopes in Jesus Christ and his thankfulness to God for him may as safely at any time come to the Lord's Table as he may come to Church to say his Prayers And if the case be so as I believe it is then of what a mighty privilege and benefit do they deprive themselves who when they have so many opportunities do so seldom join in that solemn Institution of our Lord which as I said was designed for no other purpose but to be the means of our growing in Grace and Virtue in Love to God and to all the Word O therefore my Brethren let me beg of you not to be strangers at the Lord's Table But I need not beg it of you for I am sure you will not whensoever it shall please God to put it into your hearts seriously to mind the concernments of your Souls and to be heartily sensible of the need you stand in of the Grace of Christ for the leading a holy and pure Life I have but one thing more in the Sixth place to leave with you and I have done It is not indeed of the nature of those things I have last recommended to you that is a means or instrument of growing more Virtuous But it is a principal Virtue it self And I do therefore recommend it to you because it is at all times useful at all times seasonable but more especially it seems to be so now And that is That you would walk in Love and study Peace and Unity and live in all dutiful subjection to those whom God hath set over you and endeavour in your publick stations to promote the publick Happiness and Tranquillity as much as is possible But by no means upon any pretence whatsoever to disturb the publick Peace or to be any way concerned with them that do by no means ever to ingage in any Party oâ— Faction and least of all any Faction in Religion which is grounded upon a State-point I am sorry the posture of things among us gives me occasion to mention this matter but it is too visible to what a height our animosities and discontents are grown and what the consequences of them may be unless there be a timely stop put to them I tremble to think With Mens differences as to their notions about the Politicks I am not concerned let Men frame what Hypotheses they please about Government though I do not like them yet I do not think my self bound to Preach against them But when these differences are come to that pass that they threaten both the Civil and Ecclesiastical Peace there I think no Minister should be silent Church-Divisions God knows we have and have always had too many but it is very grievous that those who have always declared themselves the Friends of our Church and Enemies to Schism should at this time of Day set a helping hand to promote a Separation And yet it seems to this height are our differences come Some People among us that formerly were very zealous for the Established Worship of the Church are now all of a sudden so distasted with it that they make a scruple of being present at our Service Nay some have proceeded so far as to declare I know not upon what grounds open War against us and set up Separate Congregations in opposition to the Publick What is the meaning of this Hath Schism and Separation from the established Worship which heretofore was branded as so heinous a sin and deservedly too so changed its nature all of a sudden that it is become not only innocent but a Duty Have we not the same Government both in Church and State that we formerly had Have we not the same Articles and Doctrines of Religion publickly owned and professed and taught without the least alteration Have we not the same Liturgy the same Offices and Prayers used every day that have always been What is there then to ground a Separation upon Yes But the names in the Prayers are changed and we cannot Pray for those that are now in Authority as we could for those that were heretofore But how unreasoanble is this when St. Paul has bid us to put up Prayers and Supplications and Intercessions for all Men especially for Kings and all that are in Authority Doth he make any restriction any distinction what Kings or what persons in Authority we are to pray for and what not Doth he not expresly say we must pray for all Men and for all that are in Authority And doth not the the reason of his exhortation imply as much if his words did not Namely that we may lead quiet and peaceable Lives in all Godliness and Honesty But I pray consider what this Doctrine leads to If this Principle be admitted to be good Divinity then farewell all the Obligations to Ecclesiastical Communion among Christians For what Government is there in the World that will not meet with such Subjects as are not satisfied with it And if that dissatisfaction be a just reason to break Communion with the Established Church what Ligaments have we to tye Christians together What will become of holding the Vnity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace What is the consequence of this but endless Schisms and Separations But further I wish these Persons would consider what an unaccountable humour it is to make a Rent and Schism in the Church upon a meer point of State Great Revolutions have happened in all Ages and in all Countries and we have frequent instances of them in story But I believe it will not be easily found that ever any Christians separated from the Church upon account of them Still they kept unanimously to their Doctrine and their Worship and never concerned themselves farther in the Turns of State how great soever they were than peaceably to submit to the Powers in being and heartily to pray to God so to
I would from hence take occasion to put you in mind of is this That Indifference and Vnconcernedness for Religion is not to have a place among any ones Virtues and good Qualities it is rather a very great fault howsoever it may sometimes pass for an instance of Wisdom and Prudence If indeed Men had no Passions or had so mortified their Passions that they were rarely earnest or zealous about any thing their unconcernedness for Religion and the things of God might be the less reproveable But when Zeal and Passion is more or less wrought into every Man's temper and the calmest Men may be observed on sundry occasions not to be without it it is an inexcusable fault to have no Passion no Zeal for God and his Cause How can a Man answer it to his own Conscience to be heartily angry when an affront in word or deed is done to himself and yet to be altogether insensible when God is affronted in his Prefence To make a mighty bustle when his own Right and Property is at stake though in never so small a matter and yet to shew no concernment for the Rights and the Honour of that God who made him and by whose savour alone it is that he can call any thing his own that he hath O! What a World of Good might we all do if we had a true Zeal of God How many Occasions and Opportunities are there put into our Hands every Day in what condition or circumstances soever we are which if we were acted by this principle would render us great Benefactors to Mankind by discouraging Vice and Impiety and promoting Virtue and Goodness in the World But perhaps I have set this business of Zeal for God too high Because none are capable of being thus Zealous but those that have attained to a great degree of Virtue and Piety which we cannot suppose of all nor the most But however it will be a shame to all of us if we do not come up to that pitch of Zeal which the unbelieving Jews are here commended for I bear them record saith St. Paul that they have a zeal of God What was this Zeal of theirs Why as I told you and as it plainly appears from the whole Chapter it was an earnest and passionate concernment for the Religion of their Country Sure all Men among us both good and bad may come up to this degree of Zeal for God and it is a reproach to us if we do not Especially confidering that their Religion at that time was not God's Religion but Ours is Indeed the Publick profession of Religion in the right way is as much every Man's Interest and ought to be as much every Man's Care as any the dearest thing he hath in this World Nay to all Men that believe they have Souls to fave it is more valuable than any other Worldly privilege It concerns us all therefore to be Zealous in that matter The Duty we owe to God to our Country and to our Selves doth require it In vain it is to be busie about other things and to neglect this A Man will have but small comfort when he comes to die to reflect that he has been Zealous of the Privileges and Property and Rights of his Country-men but it was indifferent to him how the Service of God and the Affairs of Religion were managed II. The Second thing we observe from this Passage is The Apostle's carriage to the Vnbelieving Israelites who though they were zealous for God yet were in a great mistake as to their Notions of the true Religion He doth not bitterly censure them He is not fierce nor furious against them He doth not excite any person to use force or violence to them But he rather pities them He makes their Zeal that they had of God an Inducement the more heartily to pray for them that God would direct them in the right way that leads to Salvation Though he is far from approving their blind Zeal in so obstinately opposing the Righteousness of God that is that Method which God had prescribed for the attaining of Righteousnes by the Faith of Jesus Christ and setting up a Righteousness of their own which consisted chiefly in observing the Ceremonials of Moses his Law and the Traditions of their Fathers as it follows in the next Verse after my Text Yet he thinks them the more pitiable and the more excusable in that this their Opposition proceeded from their Zeal of God though it was a mis-informed irregular Zeal This practice and carriage of the Apostle towards these Ignorant Zealots ought to be a Rule for us to walk by in the like Cases If Men be of a different way from us as to Religion if they hold other Opinions or though they be of another Communion from us and though too we are sure they are mistaken Nay and dangerously mistaken too yet if they have a Zeal of God if they be serious and sincere in their way if their Errours in Religion be the pure results of a mis-informed Conscience Let us as the Apostle here did take occasion from hence to pity them and to put up hearty Prayers to God for them and to endeavour all we can by gentle methods to reduce them to the right way But by no means to express contempt or hatred of them or to treat them with Violence and Outrage So far as their Zeal is for God let us so far shew Tenderness and Compassion to them and if their Zeal be in such instances as are really commendable let us in such instances not only bear with them but propose them for our Examples This I say was the Apostle's practice and I think it is so agreeable to the Spirit and Temper of our great Lord and Master Christ that it will become us in like cases to act accordingly But then after I have said this These two things are always to be remembred First That our Tenderness to mistaken Zealots must always be so managed as that the true Religion or the Publick Peace suffer no dammage thereby And therefore how kindly and compassionately soever we as private Christians are to treat those that differ from us and pursue a wrong way out of Conscience Yet this doth not hinder but that both wholesome Laws may be made for the restraining the exorbitances of mistaken Zeal and when those Laws are made that they may be put in execution The Consideration of Law-givers and Magistrates is different from that of private Christians Their business is to see Nequid detrimenti respublica capiat that the Government be secured that the common peace be kept that the Laws of God be observed that God's Religion as it is delivered by Jesus Christ be preserved sincere and undefiled and that the solemn Worship of God be purely and decently performed And therefore there is no doubt but that in all these matters the Government may make Fences and Securities against the Insults of intemperate Zealots and when these Fences
What a dreadful one was this of the Gunpowder Treason in the Reign of her Successor How many Dangers have threatned us since that time from that quarter What a horrible storm but of late did we apprehend and justly enough too was impending over us And yet blessed be God who hath never sailed to raise up Deliverers to his People in the day of their Distress that storm is blown over And we are here not only in Peace and Quietness in the full possession of our Native Rights and Liberties and in the Enjoyment of the Free Exercise of our Religion which is one of the most desirable things in the World But such is the deliverance that God hath wrought for us that we also seem to have a fair prospect of the Continuance of these Blessings among us and according to Humane Estimate to be in a good measure out of the danger of our old Inveterate Enemy Popery I mean which one would think had now made its last effort among us Is not this now a great Blessing And must not all sincere Protestants of what perswasions soever they be in other respects necessarily believe so Certainly they must if they think it a Blessing to be delivered out of the hands of our Enemies and to be in a Condition to serve God without fear Let us all therefore own it as such to God Almighty let us thankfully remember all his past Deliverances from Popery and especially let us never forget those of this Day neither the former nor this late one We have reason to believe that God hath a tender Care of his Church and Religion in these Kingdoms not only because he hath so many times so signally and wonderfully appeared for the preservation it But more especially because we know and are convinced that our Religion is according to his Mind and Will being no other than that which his Son Jesus Christ taught unto the World that is to say no other than that which is in the Bible which is our only Rule of Faith It infinitely concerns us all therefore so to behave our selves as to shew that we are neither unthankful for Gods past Mercies nor unqualified for his future Protection And in order to that I know no other way but this that we all firmly adhere to to the Principles of our Religion and that in our Practices we conform our selves to those Principles That is to say In the first place That we sincerely love and fear God and have a hearty sense of his Presence and Goodness and Providence continually abiding in our Minds That we trust in him depend upon him and acknowledge him in all our ways That we be careful of his Worship and Service paying him the constant Tribute of our Prayers and Praises and Thanksgiving both in Publick and Private And then secondly that we be pure and unblameable in our Lives avoiding the Pollutions that are in the World through Lust and exercising Chastity and Modesty Meekness and Humility Temperance and Sobriety amidst the sundry Temptations we have to conflict with And thirdly that we have always a fervent Charity to one another that we Love as Brethren endeavouring to do all the good we can but doing harm to none Using Truth and Justice and a good Conscience in all our dealings with Mankind Living peaceably if it be possible with all Men. And not only so but in our several Places and Stations promoting Peace and Unity and Concord among Christians and contributing what we can to the healing the sad Breaches and Divisions of our Nation And then lastly that we pay all Submission and Duty and Obedience to the King and Queen whom God hath set over us endeavouring in all the ways that are in our Power to render their Government both as easie to themselves and as acceptable to their Subjects and as formidable to their Enemies as is possible If all of us that call our selves Protestants would charge our selves with the Practice of these things how assured might we reâ—… that God would bless us that he would continue his Protection of our Nation our Church our Religion against all Enemies whatsoever and that we might see our Jerusalem still more and more to flourish and Peace to be in all her Borders May God Almighty pour upon us all the Spirit of his Grace and work all these great things in us and for us And in order hereunto may he send down his Blessings upon the King and Queen and so influence and direct all their Councils both Publick and Private that all their Subjects may be happy in their Government and 〈◊〉 peaceably and quiet lives under them in all Godiness and and Honesty And after such a Happy and Peaceable Life here may we all at last arrive to God's Eternal Kingdom and Glory through the Merits of his dear Son To whom c. SERMON XI Preached before the King and Queen AT WHITE-HALL On CHRISTMAS-DAY 1691. Heb. ix 26. Now once in the end of the World hath he appeared to put away Sin by the Sacrifice of himself THis Text doth naturally suggest Five things to be insisted on most of them proper for our Meditations on this Day which therefore I shall make the Heads of my following Discourse I. In general the Appearance of our Lord. Now hath he appeared II. The Time of that Appearance In the end of the World III. The End and Design for which he appeared To put away Sin IV. The Means by which he accomplished that End By the Sacrifice of himself V. The Difference of His Sacrifice from the Jewish ones His was but once performed Theirs were every day repeated If his Sacrifice had been like theirs then as you have it in the former part of the verse must he often have suffered since the Foundation of the World But now once in the end of the World hath he appeared to put away Sin by the Sacrifice of himself This is the just Resolution of the Text into its several particulars of each of which I shall discourse as briefly and practically as I can I. I begin with the first The Appearance of our Lord in general Now hath he appeared Let us here consider first Who it was that appeared And then How he did appear The Person appearing we will consider both as to his Nature and as to his Office He that appeared as to his Nature was God and Man both these Natures were united in him and made one Person He was God with us So the Angel stiles him in the first of St. Matthew He was the Word that was with God and was God and by whom all things were made He was I say that Word made Flesh and dwelling among us So St. John stiles him in the first of his Gospel Lastly He was God manifest in the Flesh so St. Paul stiles him in the first Epistle to Timothy This was the Person that the Text saith Now appeared that is the Son of God in Humane Nature God of
the substance of his Father begotten before all Worlds and Man of the substance of his Mother born in the World Perfect God and Perfect Man and yet but one Person For as the Reasonable Soul and the Body make one Man so here God and Man make one Christ. As our Creed expresses it And this leads me to his Office This Divine Person God-Man that the Text here saith appeared was by his Office the Christ the Messias that is that great Minister of God that Anointed King and Priest and Prophet which from the beginning of the World he promised to send down upon Earth for the salvation of Mankind Who was believed in by the Patriarchs Typified by the Law Foretold by all the Prophets Shadowed out in all the Oeconomy of the Jewish Nation Expected by all the Israelites And wished for by the best of the Heathen World This Person invested with this Office at last appeared and in what manner you all know from his Story in the Gospel He was by the Holy Spirit of God conceived in the Womb of a Virgin as was foretold of him by the Prophets of which an Angel of the highest order in Heaven first brought the happy Tidings to the Virgin her self This Virgin by as strange a Providence when the time of her Delivery drew near was brought from her own City and Habitation in Galilee to Bethlehem a City of Judah where she brought forth this Illustrious Babe And thereby fulfilled another Prophecy concerning him namely That he should be born in Bethlehem which also the Scribes at that time acknowledged The circumstances indeed of his Birth were far from any outward Pomp and Magnificence The Virgin his Mother was poor and a stranger and so ill befriended that in the Confluence of People with which the City was then crowded she was able to procure no better a lodging than the Stable of an Inn So that a Manger was the place that first received the Lord of Glory This Slur this Affront God then thought fit to put upon all that external Splendour and Grandeur which usually doth so much dazle the Eyes of Mortal Men. But God failed not to make abundant amends for the meanness of his Birth by giving sundry other demonstrable Evidences of the Dignity of the Person that was then born For the Magi from the East Princes shall I call them or Philosophers being conducted by a new Star came and pay'd their Homage and brought their Offerings to this King of the World in a Manger And the Shepherds that were watching their Flocks in the Fields by night were surprized with the Glory of the Lord shining round about them and an Angel that thus spoke to them Fear not for behold I bring you Tidings of great Joy which shall be to all People for unto you is born this day in the City of David a Saviour which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you ye shall find the Babe wrapped in swadling Cloths lying in a Manger And suddenly there was with the Angel a Multitude of the Heavenly Host praising God and saying Glory to God in the Highest on Earth Peace Good Will towards Men. After this manner was the Appearance of our Saviour and much after the same manner was his following Life It was a life of much Poverty and Meanness as to outward circumstances but it was a life in every Period of it fraught with Wonders Whether we consider the admirable Goodness and Charmingness of his Temper or the exemplary Vertue and Piety that did shine out in all his Conversation Or the Divinity of his Sermons and Doctrines Or his prodigious inimitable Miracles Or the Attestations which were given to him from Heaven Or the usage he received from Men Or the Events which followed upon all these things in the World But it is his first Appearance in the Flesh that we are this day met together to Commemorate And never had Mankind so Noble an Argument given them to exercise their Thoughts and Meditations upon If we consider the Quality of the Person appearing that he was no other than the Eternal Son of God How ought we to be wrapt with Wonder and Astonishment at the Infiniteness of the Divine Condescension How ought we to be affected with Love and Thankfulness at such a never-to-be-parallelled instance of God's kindness to us that he should so love us as to send his only begotten Son into the World that we might live through him If we consider that this Son of God resolving to appear in the World of all other ways chose to do it in our Flesh and so united both the Deity and Humanity in one Person O what a sense ought this to impress upon us of the Honour that is here done to our Nature and the Dignity it is advanced to And how ought that sense either to fright us or to shame us from prostituting this our Nature to any vile unworthy Mixtures and Communications which God did not disdain to take into so near a Relation to himself If we consider that this God in humane Flesh came as the Messiah the Saviour of the World so long before promised and so long expected How ought this to fill our hearts with Joy and Thankfulness How should it move us to pour out our Souls in Benedictions to God for having thus Visited and Redeemed his People And putting us into that dispensation which so many Holy Men for so many Ages wished to see but did not see it nay and which the Angels themselves desired to look into and which the Jews for rejecting at the time it was published are to this day a standing Monument of God's Displeasure and Vengeance If we consider the many Evidences that this our Saviour gave at his Appearance of his being the true Christ How exactly in all the Circumstances of his Nativity and all the Passages of his Life he fulfilled the Prophecies which went before of him and how convincing the Testimonies were which God gave to the Truth of his Mission How ought this Consideration to strengthen our Faith in this Christ To make us constant to the death in owning him for our Saviour our Messiah in Opposition to all the Pretences of the Jews and Infidels and Atheists and Scepticks to the contrary Lastly If we consider the mean Circumstances that this our Christ chose to appear in so far below the Dignity of so great a Prince that there is not the poorest Beggar 's Child among us but generally finds better Accommodation when it comes into the World O what a Check what a Rebuke ought this to be to that Spirit of Ambition and Pride and Vain-glory that too often possesses us poor Mortals How ought it to take off our admiration and lessen the too great esteem we are apt to have of all outward Pomp and Greatness Nay and to make us despise all the glittering Shews and and Bravery of the World Since God has given us so visible a
that the Souls Immortality is demonstrable by the light of Nature yet there are generally these two Inconveniences in the Arguments they make use of for the Proof of this matter which render them in a great measure ineffectual for the reforming mens lives First They are generally of so great Subtilty so Nice so Metaphysical so much above the reach of ordinary Capacities that they are useless to the greatest part of Mankind who have not understandings fitted for them And Secondly They have this inconvenience likewise that a Man doth not see the Evidence of them without actual attention to a long Train of Propositions which attention it may be when a Man most stands in need of their Support he shall neither have the leisure nor the humour to give But now the Christian Method of proving another Life is quite of another strain and wholly free from these inconveniences That Demonstration which Christ hath given us of a glorious Immortality by his Resurrection from the dead as it is infinitely certain and conclusive so it is plain and easy short and compendious powerful and operative No Man that believes the matter of Fact can deny the Cogency of it Men of the meanest Capacities may apprehend it Persons in a crowd of business and in the midst of temptations may attend to it And it hath this Vertue besides that it leaves a lasting impression upon the Spirits of those that do believe and consider it Thanks therefore to our Lord Jesus Christ for this excellent Instrument of Piety that he hath given us by his Resurrection Everlasting Praises to his name that he hath thus brought Life and Immortality to light by his Gospel This very thing alone was there nothing else to be said for the Christian Revelation would sufficiently justify both the Gospel it self and our Lord Jesus the Author of it to all Mankind nay and effectually recommend his Religion above all others that ever were taught to all Persons in all Nations of the World IV. Fourthly and Lastly There is still a further Blessing coming to us by our Saviour's Resurrection from the dead and in which indeed is chiefly seen and expressed the great Power of it for the making us Holy and Vertuous That is to say Unto it we do principally owe all that supernatural Grace and Assistance by which we are enabled to vanquish our Corruptions and to live up to the Precepts of our Religion As Christ by his Resurrection did oblige us to lead new lives As Christ by his Resurrection did demonstrate the truth of the Christian Religion which is wholly in order to our leading new lives As by his Resurrection he cleared up to us the certainty of our future State and thereby gave us the greatest Motive and Encouragement to lead new lives So in the last place by the same Resurrection he acquired a Power of conferring Grace and Strength and Influence upon us by the Virtue of which we are in fact inabled to lead new lives Tho' Christ by his death reconciled us to God and procured a Pardon of Sin for us yet the actual benefit of this Reconciliation the actual application of this Pardon did depend upon our performance of certain Conditions Which conditions were that we should mortify all our evil affections and frame our Lives suitable to the Laws of the Gospel But now the Grace and Power by which we are inabled to do this was not the effect of Christ's Death but of his Resurrection It was when he ascended up on high and led Captivity Captive that is when he had vanquished Death which had vanquished all the World before It was then as the Scripture assures us and not till then that he was in a capacity of giving gifts unto men It was not till he was glorified as St. John observes that the holy spirit was given Hence it is that we every where find the Apostles attributing the business of Man's Justification and Salvation as much or more to Christ's Resurrection than to his Passion If Christ be not risen saith St. Paul 1 Cor. xv your Faith is in vain ye are yet in your Sins Indeed if Christ had perished in the Grave we had still had all the load of our sins upon us because we had no assurance that God had accepted the Atonement and Propitiation which he had made for them And much less could we have promised to our selves that we should have been assisted by any Divine Power for the subduing of them Again the same St. Paul tells us Rom. iv that Christ was delivered for our sins and raised again for our justification Christ's Death was the Sacrifice the Satisfaction for our Sins But it was by the means of his Resurrection that that Sacrifice and Satisfaction is applied to us and we for the merits of it become justified before God Lastly To name no more Texts Who saith the same Apostle Rom. viii shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect It is God that justifyeth Who is he that condemneth It is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again who is even at the right hand of God who also maketh intercession for us Here then is the great Power of our Saviour's Resurrection to make us good Christ being risen from the dead hath all Power given him both in Heaven and in Earth God as St. Paul expresseth it hath put all things under his feet and hath given him to be head over all things to the Church Eph. 1.22 Now in the fullness of that Power that he is invested with as he doth on one hand with never-failing efficacy make continual Intercession for his Church and every Member of it So he doth on the other hand out of the fulness of that Power derive and communicate so much Strength and Grace and Assistance of the Divine Spirit to all Christians that if they make a good use of it they shall not fail to perform all those Conditions of Faith and Repentance and a Holy Life that are required of them in order to their being made actual partakers of all those unspeakable Benefits which he purchased for Mankind by his Death and Sufferings Christ by his Resurrection is become both our High-Priest and our King both our Advocate and our Lord. By that Power which he then obtained as our Priest and Advocate he doth with Authority recommend us and all our concernments to his Father As our King and Lord he rules and governs us he takes care of us he provides for us he represses the insults of his and our Enemies and defeats all their attempts against us And lastly he supplies us from time to time with such a measure of Grace and Strength and influence of his Divine Spirit as he sees is needful or proper for our Condition If all this now that I have said be the effect of our Saviour's Resurrection as it certainly is Must we not needs own that there is a mighty Power in it for the making us good
God and his Providence a lively Sense of our own Sinfullness and Weakness and manifold Necessities and an entire humble constant Dependence upon the Divine Goodness for the Supply of them In such a Frame of Soul as this I take That Spirit of Prayer and Supplication mentioned in the Scriptures to consist Secondly To pray always likewise imports that upon every solemn Occasion we should actually address our selves to God seeking help from him in all the straits and difficulties we happen into rendring our acknowledgments for every Good that arrives to us in our lives and imploring his Protection his Guidance his Blessing upon us in every Work of Moment that we go about Thirdly It imports farther that we should at least twice every day either in publick or in private offer up the Sacrifice of Prayer and Praise in a solemn manner unto God Less than this I think this Phrase of Praying always as likewise that other Expression of St. Paul 1 Thess v. 17. that we should pray without ceasing less than this I say they cannot signifie but how much more I now enquire not It is indeed very probable as Interpreters have noted that these Expressions are borrowed from and have respect to the daily Sacrifices among the Jews Every day twice that is to say in the Morning and in the Evening by the Appointment of God was offer'd up a Sacrifice in the Temple to which the Devout People resorted Which Sacrifice is in Scripture called by the Name of the continual Sacrifice the daily Sacrifice the never-ceasing Sacrifice and this in Contra-distinction to the occasional Sacrifices which pious Persons used to bring thither If now this be a true account of these Expressions we cannot be said to pray always to pray without ceasing to pray continually unless we do at least twice every day in the Morning and in the Evening offer up our solemn Sacrifice of Prayer to God But Fourthly To pray always and not to faint Implies great Earnestness and Importunity in our Prayers It imports that we should not faintly Address to God but with Affection and Fervour with a deep Sence of our Sins and of our Wants and a serious and fixed Attention to what we are about and with very ardent desires and hungring and thirsting after that Grace or that Pardon or that Blessing that we pray for And this is that kind of Prayer which St. James Styles the effectual fervent Prayer of a Righteous man which Ch. v. 16. he saith availeth much Lastly To pray always and not to faint imports Continuance and Perseverance in our Prayers That we do not pray by Fits and Starts and then intermit our Devotion but constantly keep up the Fervour of our Minds towards God Not giving over our Prayers Rom. 12.12 tho' we have not a Return of them so soon as we expect But continuing instant in Prayer as the Apostle speaks and watching thereunto with all perseverance Eph. 6.18 These are the chief things which are comprized in this Command of our Saviour Now to recommend the Practice hereof to you and to offer some Arguments to perswade every one thus to pray always and not to faint is that which I design in the remaining part of this Discourse I do not know how it comes to pass that Men have generally so great an Aversion to this Duty of Prayer They are very hardly got to it They are glad of any Pretence in the World to be excused from it And when they do come to perform their Devotions which among many is not oftner than the Laws or Customs of the Countrey oblige them to how soon are they weary of them How little do they attend to the siness they are about As if indeed Prayer was one of the greatest Burdens that God could lay upon Human Nature Whereas in truth if our Lusts and Passions were out of the way and Men could be brought to give themselves the Liberty of considering things equally we should be convinced that there is no Work that a Man can apply himself to no Action that he can perform to which there are greater Invitations greater Motives nay I was going to say greater Temptations of all sorts than to this of Prayer Suppose one would set himself to perswade any of us to the Practice of some particular thing which he hath a Mind to recommend to us what more effectual Method could he take for the carrying of his Point than to lay before us the common Heads of Arguments by which all Mankind are prevailed upon to undertake any Business or Action And then to convince us that the thing he would perswade us to is recommendable upon all these accounts As for instance That it is a thing fit and decent and reasonable to be done Nay 't is a thing we are oblig'd in duty to do even so far oblig'd that we act against our Natures if we do it not Nor have we any just Exception against it It is the most easie thing in the World It will put us to no manner of Trouble or Pains or Self-Denial So far from that that it is very pleasant and delightful And not only so but also highly creditable and honourable And which is the Top of all the Benefits and Advantages we shall receive from it are extremely great in all respects If now I say a Man can make all these things good of the Point he would perswade us to sure all the World must account us out of our Wits if we do not follow his Advice Yet all these things it may be evidently made to appear are true of Prayer and that too in a higher degree than of most things in the World What therefore can be desired in this Exercise to recommend the Practice thereof to us that it hath not And what must be concluded of us if notwithstanding all this we continue obstinate in our Neglects of it Give me leave to speak a little to these several Particulars First of all Doth it recommend any thing to our Practice that it is fit and decent and reasonable to be done Then certainly we must needs think our selves obliged to the constant Practice of this Point we are speaking of For there is nothing that doth more become us nor is any thing more undecent or more unreasonable than the Neglect of it Is it not fit that the Sovereign Lord of us and of the World should be acknowledged by us That we who do continually depend upon him should ever and anon be looking up to him and expressing that Dependence Is it not fit that we who every moment experience a thousand Instances of his Kindness partake of a thousand Mercies and Favours of his and must perish the next Minute unless they be continued to us Is it not highly fit and reasonable I say that we should take notice at least of these things to this our Benefactor We should think it very ill Manners to pass by our Prince or even
any of our Betters without saluting them or some way or other testifying our Respect to them tho' they had no way particularly obliged us But if we were beholding to them for our daily Bread to come into their Presence without taking notice of them or their Bounty to us would be intolerable How much more intolerable therefore must it be to pass by God Almighty day after day nay to be in his Presence continually as indeed we always are and yet neither to pay any Homage or Reverence to him as He is our Supreme Lord nor to make any Acknowledgments as He is our daily Preserver and Benefactor If we had any sense of Ingenuity we should blush to think of passing a Day without several times lifting up our Minds and doing our Respects to Almighty God tho' there was no other ill in the Neglect than only the horrible Rudeness and ill Manners that it discovers in us But Secondly The constant Exercise of Prayer is not only recommended to us under the notion of a very decent and reasonable thing but as an indispensable Duty God Almighty hath most strictly charged it upon us and we are Transgressors of his Laws if we do not practise it Nature it self speaks sufficiently plain in this matter And where-ever God hath to the Law of Nature super-added any Revelation of his Will this Duty we are speaking of fails not to make up a considerable part of it It would be endless to mention all that is said upon this Head by our Lord and his Apostles in the new Testament I have told you already that they oblige us to no less than Praying always Praying without ceasing They use likewise abundance of other Expressions to the like purpose They bid us every where to lift up holy hands In every thing to make our Supplications known unto God To pray in the Spirit with all Prayer and Supplication and and to watch thereunto with all perseverance If it be said there is no such express command for Prayer in that Revelation which was made to the Jews I answer It is a great Mistake The Prophets do over and over again injoin it as the Principal Part of the Worship of God And those that live without Praying are by those Inspired Writers rank'd among the Atheists Psalm 53.1.4 And as for the Law of Moses it self it is obvious to observe that the greatest part of it is concerning Sacrifices Now Sacrifices if we will understand them right were nothing else but that Form or Method of putting up Prayers to God that was in those times used in the World So that in truth so far was Prayer from being left as a Matter of Indifferency to the Jews that most of their Religion consisted in it And accordingly all the Devout Men of that Church spent much of their Time in this Exercise David's manner was to pray seven times a Day And Daniel took himself to be so much obliged to the frequent Practice of this Duty that rather than break his Custom of performing his Solemn Devotions three times a day he would expose himself to the Den of Lyons Nay Thirdly So great is our obligation to frequent Prayer that he acts against his Nature whosoever doth not practise it For in truth Prayer is the proper and peculiar Duty of Man as he is a Man That which constitutes the nature of Man and doth formally difference and distinguish him from all other Animals is not so much the power of Reason as the capacity of being Religious There are some Foot-steps of an obscure Reason to be observed in many Creatures besides Man But in none except Him is there found any sense of a Deity or Disposition towards Religion or any thing that looks like it That seems to be the Prerogative of Mankind God endowed them and them only with Spirits capable of Reflecting upon the Author of their Beings and of making acknowledgments and performing Religious Worship to him So that to Worship God to converse with him in the exercise of Devotion to Pray and give Thanks for his Benefits may be truly said to be the proper Office of a Man as Man The natural exercise of those Faculties that distinguish him from brute Creatures And consequently those that live in a continual neglect of this what must be said of them but that they act unsuitably to their Natures and are degenerated into a sort of Brutishness It appears then that our Obligations to this Duty are many and great and such as there is no possibility of evading But here is our unhappiness that those Duties which we are most strictly obliged to are not those that we are always most inclined to practise There may be something in the most indispensable Duties so harsh and unpleasant so disagreeing with our other Appetites or Interests They may be so hard to be performed so Laborious or so Expensive or upon some other account so ungratefull that we shall naturally put our selves upon the finding out Excuses for the ridding our hands of them and easily satisfy our minds for so doing But now which I desire in the Fourth place to be considered There are none of these pretences to be made against this Duty of Prayer none of these Inconveniencies do attend it But it is so naturally so easily performed and so inoffensively to all our other Appetites and Interests That one would think nothing but mere laziness or stupidity could hinder a Man from the daily Exercise of it It requires no great Parts or Learning or Study for the discharging it The meanest Capacity the most un-improved Vnderstanding if there be but an honest Heart may perform it as well as the learnedest Man in the World It requires no Labour or Toil. The feeblest and most dis-spirited Body that can but lift up eyes to Heaven and direct wishes thither doth it as effectually as the most vigorous Constitution It doth not go against the grain of any natural Inclination nor put the body to any pain or hardship Nor doth it contradict any appetite or affection that Nature hath implanted in us No Humour but either the Sottish or the Malicious the Brutish or the Devilish is distasted by it It puts us to no Charge or Expence in the World save that of our Thoughts yet that is the noblest way of spending them And if they be not employed thus it is ten to one but they will be employed much worse It is not at all consumptive of our Time For we may attend this work when we are a doing other business and there is no man so full of business but he hath abundance of vacant spaces which he will not know how to fill up to any good purpose unless he hath learned this Art of saving Time In a word there is no Objection against it it is one of the Easiest Naturalest Inoffensivest Duties in the World Nay so easie it is that the most Selfish Man if he was to make his own Terms with
of the covetous that God abhorreth them Psal 10.3 which implies the utmost aversion that the Divine nature is capable of to any sort of Men or things The uncharitable and hard hearted Men God hath declared he will have no mercy on Jam. 2.13 but they shall have judgment without mercy that have shewed no mercy Fourthly and lastly a necessity there is that those that are rich in this World should do good and be rich in good works c. upon their own account Though there were no other tye upon them yet self-love and self-preservation would oblige them to it I meddle not here how far in point of worldly interest they are concerned to be charitable though even the motives drawn from hence are very considerable For certainly Charity is a means not only to preserve and secure to them what they have and to make them enjoy it more comfortably but also to increase their store No Man is ever poorer for what he gives away in useful Charity but on the contrary he thrives better for it God seldom fails in this World amply to repay what is thus lent to him besides the other Blessings that accompany his store and go along with it to hs Children after him This I am sure is solemnly promised and in the ordinary dispensations of Providence we see it generally made good whereas to the greedy and penurious Man all things fall out quite contrary he may have Wealth but he hath little comfort in it for a curse generally attends it of which he feels the sad effects in a variously miserable and vexatious life and often in either having none or an unfortunate Posterity But this is not the thing that I mean to insist on This World lasts but for a while and it is no great matter how we fare in it but we have Souls that must live for ever If therefore Men have any kindness for them if they mean not to be undone to all eternity it is absolutely necessary they should do good with what they have O that uncharitable rich Men would think upon that woe that our Saviour pronounceth against them Luke 6.24 Wo unto you that are rich for ye have received your consolation O that they would seriously consider and often remember those words of Abraham to the rich Man in Hell Luk. 16.25 Son saith he remember that thou in thy life receivedst thy good things and Lazarus evil things but now he is comforted and thou art tormented Not that it is a crime to be rich or to have good things in our life no it is the inordinate love of their Wealth to which those that have it are too frequently prone and their not imploying it to those purposes of doing good for which it was given it is these things that bring these curses upon them and really make it easier without an Hyporbole for a Camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Luke 18.25 Certain it is there is no one sin that can be named doth more fatally exclude from Salvation than this we are speaking of We never find the Prophets or the Apostles giving a list of those black crimes that will involve all that are guilty of them in inevitable destruction but we are sure to meet with Covetousness and all the attendants of it among them as many instances might be given Nay so great is this sin of Uncharitableness and not doing good with our Wealth that God in the final sentence that he shall pass upon wicked Men to their condemnation at the last day seems to take no notice of the other sins and crimes of their life but only to censure them for this Matth. 25.31 c. Thus we find that when the King having gathared all Nations before him comes to pronounce the sentence upon those on his left hand who are those that are doomed to everlasting fire there is no mention made of their criminal actions they are not condemned for fraud and oppression for unbelief and irreligion for lewdness and debauchery though any of these be enough to damn a Man but merely for their not doing good for their not relieving the necessitous and excercising other acts of Charity when it was in their power Since now from these Considerations it doth appear how necessary how indispensable a Duty it is to do good with what we have to be rich in good works to be ready to distribute and willing to communicate let me at this time charge all of you that are rich in this world as you would not be unthankful to your great Benefactor nor unjust to your Neighbours as you have any piety towards God or any care of your own Souls that you put it in practice And two instances of this great Duty the present occasion and the exigence of things doth oblige me more particularly to recommend to you The first is the business of the Hospitals the encouraging and promoting that Charity which the piety of our Ancestors begun and whose examples their Successors have hitherto worthily followed and of which we see excellent effects at this day for this we need no better proof than the Report given in of the great number of poor Children and other poor people maintained in the several Hospitals under the pious care of the Lord Mayor Commonalty and Citizens of London the year last past For these so great instances of Charity what have we to do but with all Gratitude to commemorate those noble and publick Spirits that first began them and with all devotion to put up our prayers to God for all those now alive that have been promoters and encouragers of such good works and lastly with all chearfulness and diligence to follow these Patterns by liberally contributing to their Maintenance and Advancement These are th Publick Banks and Treasuries in which we may safely lodge that Money which we lend out to God and may from him expect the Interest O what comfort will it be to us when we come to die to be able to say to our selves That portion of goods that God hath in his Providence dispensed to me I have neither kept unprofitably in a Napkin nor squander'd it away upon my lusts but part of it I have put out towards the restoring my miserable Brethren to to the right use of their reason and understanding part of it to the amending Mens manners and from idle and dissolute persons redeeming them to vertue and sobriety and making them some way profitable to the Publick part of it for the healing the sick and curing the wounded and relieving the miserable and necessitous and lastly another part of it towards the Educating poor helpless Children in useful Arts for their Bodies and in the Principles of True Religion for their Souls that so both in their Bodies and Spirits they may be in a capacity to glorifie God and to serve their Country These are all
great things and in which way soever of them we lay out our selves we serve excellent ends of Charity But there is another point of useful publick Charity which though the occasion of this meeting hath nothing to do with it yet the present necessity of the thing doth oblige me seriously to recommend to you There are few I believe in this City either ignorant or insensible of the extreme numerousness of Beggars in our Streets and unless care be taken their number is likely to increase for this seems to be a growing evil I dare not lay the fault of this upon the defectiveness of our Laws nor dare I say that the provisions made for the Poor are incompetent or disproportionable to the number of them for perhaps the usual publick Taxes and private Free-will Offerings discreetly managed would go a great way towards the curing this evil supposing the richer Parishes to contribute to the maintaining the poorer But here is the misery we do not sufficiently distinguish between our poor nor take care to make provisions for them according to their respective necessities There are some that by reason either of old age or evil accidents are perfectly unable to earn a livelihood for themselves or to be any way useful to the publick except by their Prayers and their good examples and to see such go a begging is a shame to our Christianity and a reproach to our Government There are others that are fit to labour and might prove useful Members of the Common-wealth many ways if they were rightly managed now the True Charity to these is not to relieve them to the encouragement of their idleness but to employ them to put them into such a way that they may both maintain themselves and help towards the maintaining of others and if they refuse this let them suffer for their folly for there is no reason that those should eat that will not work if they be able A necessity therefore there is if ever this scandalous publick nusance of common begging be redressed that these four things be taken care of 1. That those that cannot work be maintained without begging 2. That those that can work and are willing have such publick provisions made that they may be employed in one way or other according as they are capable and every one receive fruits of his labour proportionable to his industry 3. That those that can work and will not be prosecuted according to the Laws as Rogues and Vagrants and Pests of the Kingdom And lastly after such publick provisions are made for the maintaining both sorts of Poor that are objects of Charity that is the helpless and those that endeavour to help themselves that all persons be exhorted and directed to put their private Charity in the right Channel wholly withdrawing it from the lazy and the lusty Beggars lest they be thereby encouraged in their infamous course of life and giving it to those who by publick order shall be recommended to them These things I hope I may without offence recommend to the Wisdom and Care of the Government of this Honourable City since there are both Heads enough to contrive the particular ways of curing these evils and Hands enough that will be open to contribute what is needful to so useful a work Certain it is the thing is practicable since it hath been and is practised in some Towns of this Nation and in several beyond the Seas And that it is needful there is none that hath any true sense of Charity which consists as much in taking care to prevent the miseries and necessities of Mankind as in relieving them there is none that hath any regard to the Reputation of our Religion or the Honour and good Government of this City or Kingdom but must needs acknowledge It is one of the great Glories of this City that as they have been always faithful and prudent in the management of those Publick Charities that they have been entrusted with so have they been very ready to encrease and to add to them And God without doubt hath blessed them the more for this very thing as indeed the best atonement that any people can make for the many sins that the place is guilty of is the Sacrifice of Alms and Charity And I hope that which condemned Sodom to wit that there were not ten righteous men found in it that is Men that were of a Publick Spirit that were truly Liberal and Bountiful and Charitable for that is an usual Notion of Righteousness in the Old Testament and there are some passages in this History which make it probable that it may be the notion of it here I say that very thing it is to be hoped hath and will preserve this City of ours because as far as we can gather there are in it many times ten such Righteous persons In truth if there were not several good Men among us that by the exemplarity of their lives and their Charity do stand in the gap between the reigning sins of the times and the Judgments of God that threaten us for them it would be a melancholy thing to think what would become of us But so long as God is pleased to continue to us a succession of those that fear God and hate covetousness that make it their business to do good and to serve their generation there is hopes that he will yet continue to bless us And so gracious hath God been to our City and Kingdom in this respect that to the glory of his name be it spoken whatever boasts they of the Church of Rome are wont to make of the Charitableness of their Religion in opposition to the penuriousness of ours and reproach us with the bounty and munificence of our Popish Ancestors and the barrenness of their Protestant Successors yet we may safely affirm that there have been more publick works of Charity done in this City and Kingdom since the Reformation than can be proved to have been done in the same compass of years during all the time that Popery prevailed among us O therefore let us go on to do this Honour to our Religion let us go on by our good works to adorn the doctrine of God that we profess Let us not only equal but labour to exceed the Piety and the Publick-spiritedness of our Forefathers Let every one both Magistrates and People in their several capacities be zealous and vigorous both in consulting in contriving and in acting for the publick good as much as is possible And for your greater incouragement thus to do let it be remembred in the last place that besides the outward advantages both publick and private that we reap by being charitable this is the best course we can take to secure our everlasting Happiness in the World to come For to do good with our Wealth to be rich in good works to be ready to distribute willing to communicate is as the Apostle in the Text tells us the way to lay